/ɪ/

• fish and chips, (Brad) Pitt, Miss Italy

• pretty, vinegar, develop, essential, English
• surface, preface
• language, manage, sausage, image, hostage, message,
luggage, advantage, average, vintage, garbage, village,
cabbage, hermitage, garage BUT:
massage, camouflage, sabotage, garage: /ɑ:/
• women, business, spinach, minute

* NOTE THAT THE PARTS IN COLOUR ARE NOT INDICATIONS OF STRESS: THEY
SIMPLY CLARIFY WHERE THE /ɪ/ IS PRESENT.
 /i:/
• dream, heat, breathe (respirare)
• teenager, seen, breeze, referee
• scene, lenient, Venetian, previous, evil, even, evening, arena
• seize, neither (also /ˈnaɪðə/)
• grief, brief
• margarine, submarine, magazine, vaccine
• TV, BBC, EU
 Be careful!

/ɪ/ vs. /i:/

ship vs. sheep
pitch vs. peach
shit vs. sheet
bitch vs. beach
piss vs. peace

However, been can be pronounced with either the short or long vowel.
 Word-final /i/

• pretty, dirty, filthy, silly, easy, fussy

 /e/
• cheque, fed, legend, pressure, Jeffrey, berry (=bacca)
• health, wealth, stealth, meant, dreamt, peasant, measure, breath
(respiro), jealous, heaven
• friend
• leisure, Leicester
• many, any, (the) Thames
• says, said (NOT /seɪz/, /seɪd/); ate (also /eɪt/)
• Greenwich, bury; Geoffrey, Leonard
 /ɔ:/
• wore, shore, sore, bored, floor, poor, auditorium
• four, pour, source, court, tournament
• war, warning, warm, reward, quarter; sure
• board, abroad, boar, soar; extraordinary

• saw, law, straw, paw, flaw, awkward, yawn, awesome, (Guy)

Fawkes
• ball, wall, (shopping) mall, enthralling, appalling
• also, walk, bald, salt, Malta, water, taught, naughty, Laura, Paul,
sauce, pause, nausea, sauna, Auckland, thought, brought,
nought
• Sean, Salisbury
 /ɔ:/ RP vs Standard American
• If there is an ‘r’ in the spelling:
Eng /ɔ:/ vs Am /ɔ:r/
-floor, sore, war, pour
• If there is not an ‘r’ in the spelling:
Eng /ɔ:/ vs Am /ɑ:/
-flaw, saw, ball, walk, taught, thought, Sean
-Check Jon Hamm’s pronunciation of saw, awesome, sort (of), more,
called, forward, all, course
 /ɑ:/
• mask, ask, last, grass, class, glass, castle, mast, fast, past, master,
disaster, raspberry, cast; half, after, crafty, daft, draught, draft, laugh,
graph; bath, path; chance, dance, enhance, answer, plant, grant, can’t,
aunt, advantage; banana; sample, example; saga,
• BUT mass, lass, crass, frantic, ant, rant, ample = /æ/

• massage, garage, entourage

• palm, calm, spa, Prague, father
• car, shark, charming, heart, caviar, seminar, guitar, (to) mar, radar,
scenario, arse, are, our (also /auə/)
• reservoir, repertoire; sergeant, derby, clerk
 /ɒ/
• bomb, everybody, orange, obvious, forest, lorry, hot dog
• what, was, quality, quantity, quarry, quarrel, squash, squabble, swan,
wallet, wasp, warrior, wand, wander, Washington, Warwick, Watson,
swab (= tampone), yacht
• sausage, because, laurel (= alloro), cauliflower, (Hugh) Laurie, Austria,
Australia
• cough, Van Gogh, knowledge, Gloucester (rhymes with foster)
 /ʌ/
• thunder, nun, sun, culture, fund, hundred
• mother, other, nothing; government, lovely, above, oven, (re)cover;
come, stomach, (ac)company, Somers, thorough, worry
• done, one, none, won, London, among, honey, money, month,
sponge, onion, wonder
• country, touch, cousin, southern, trouble, enough, tough, couple,
(en)courage
• does
• blood, flood
 /ɜ:/
• bird, first, circus, circuit, Birmingham, sir, terra firma
• absurd, turn, hurt, curly (hair), purpose, occur
• reverse, stern, certain, nerd, refer, were
• worst, word, work, world, worm
• heard, learn, research, yearn, pearl
• journey, journal, adjourn
• colonel
 /eɪ/
• say, tray, may, pray, spray, array, Sunday; prey (=preda), survey, grey, hey
• ancient, nation, native, estate, ate (also pronounced /et/), matrix, stake,
brake, bake(ry), Cambridge, Danish, Pagan, plague, alien, oasis, sadist,
racism, radar, laser, status, Mediterranean, chaos, quasi
• wait, plain, waist, straight, (dire) straits
• eight, weight, neighbour
• steak, break
• cafè, ballet
• NOT Latin, national: the first vowel is /æ/
• patriot and patriotic can have either /eɪ/ or /æ/
 /aɪ/
• kind, bye, why, mine, sublime, climb, tie,
sighs, size, height, gigabyte, either, neither,
virus, item, minor, deny, sight/site/cite, alibi
• maestro
• /aɪə/ fire, dire, buyer, quiet, society, anxiety
 -ow- = /əu/ or /au/?
In some cases both sounds are possible. There is one trick question!

• 1.drowsy 2.allow 3.low 4.bow 5.cow 6.tower 7.throw

8.lawnmower 9.bowl 10.renowned 11.power 12.own
13.tow 14.row 15.Rowling 16.crown 17.Bowie
18.meadow 19.towel 20.window 21.flown 22.vowel
23.eyebrow 24.vow 25.howl 26.crow 27.drown
28.Mowgli 29.acknowledge 30.hollow 31.gown
32.Moscow 33.Cracow
/au/ or /əu/?

• /au/
1.drowsy 2.allow 5.cow 6.tower 10.renowned
11.power 16.crown 19.towel 22.vowel 23.eyebrow
24.vow 25.howl 27.drown 31.gown 33.Cracow
• /əu/
3.low 7.throw 8.lawnmower 9.bowl 12.own 13.tow
15.Rowling 18.meadow 20.window 21.flown 26.crow
30.hollow 32.Moscow
• /au/ and /əu/
4.bow 14.row 17.Bowie 28. Mowgli
 /eə/
• Mary (vs merry /ˈmerɪ/), vary (vs very), parent,
scary, warehouse, bare, Sarah, area
• affair, stairs, pair, dairy
• pear, bear, tear (strappare), wear, where, we’re
• aeroplane, aerobics
• prayer; there/their/they’re
 /θ/ and /ð/
• /θ/: thin, thought, wealthy, healthy, Athens, Luther,
sympathy, eighth, author, myth, south, maths, cloth, bath,
teeth, breath, worth
• /ð/: this, there, other, (al)though, southern,
weather/whether, rather, further, feather, together, without,
the Netherlands, rhythm, blithe, booth, clothes, to bathe, to
teethe, to breathe, worthy
• BUT /t/ in: Thailand, Thames, Thomas, Thompson,
Anthony/Antony
 /ʃ/
• shine, shoot, cushion, rushing, crash
• station, patience, initiative, position
• social, crucial, racial, musician, ocean
• mission, passion, possession, controversial, version
• sure, sugar, issue, tissue
• champagne, chauffeur, chef, Chicago, Charlotte, chivalry, machine,
brochure, parachute, crèche, moustache
 /j/
• yell, Yahoo, unity, union, uniform, Europe
• music, amuse, debut, Hugh, alluring, pure, cure, cute,
cue, volume, menu, nephew, value, Zurich
• dual, duel, duty, produce, endure, statute, Tuesday,
Stewart, youtube (x2)
• new, ensue, pursue, assume, presume
• Daniel, opinion, California
• beauty, Graham
 Yod dropping
• In Standard American and also in parts of the south and midlands of
England, /j/ is lost after /t, d, n, l s, z/. This is known as yod dropping.

• So, for most Americans news becomes /nu:z/ and due rhymes with
do, but fuse remains /fju:z/ and cute remains /kju:t/.
 /s/ or /z/?

• assume, presume, close (verb), close (adj), face,

phase, fazed, rice, rise, lice, lies, pays, pace, a house,
to house, possess, this, his, to hiss, noise, prize, price,
cousin, refuse, assess, resource
 /s/ or /z/
• /s/
• assume, close (adj), face, rice, lice, pace, a house, this, price, to hiss,
assess= /əˈses/,

• /z/
• presume, close (verb), phase, fazed, rise, lies, pays, his, to house,
noise, prize, cousin, refuse

• Both /s/ and /z/: possess = /pəˈzes/, resource = /rɪˈsɔ:s/ OR /rɪˈzɔ:s/

 ‘cu’: /kj/ or /k/?
• recurrent, occupy, cute, focus, persecution, peculiar,
execute, cushion, circumspect, particular, ridiculous,
cube, cure, accuse, occur, accurate, obscure, rescue,
cushy, acupuncture, vacuum, accumulate, circus,
porcupine, Marcus, (John) Cusack, Mancunian
 ‘cu’: /kj/ vs /k/
• /kj/
• occupy, cute, persecution, peculiar, execute,
particular, ridiculous, cube, cure, accuse, accurate,
obscure, rescue, acupuncture, vacuum, accumulate,
porcupine, Mancunian
• /k/
• recurrent, focus, cushion, circumspect occur, cushy,
circus, Marcus, Cusack
 -ng-: /ŋ/ or /ŋg/?
• /ŋ/: sing, rang, long, wing; singer, banger, winger, clanger, bellringer
• /ŋg/: longer, younger, hunger, finger, linger, anger, jungle, mangle,
England, Hungary

• /ŋ/ or /ŋg/: Tonga

• BUT /ndʒ/ in: danger, stranger, binge, J.D. Salinger